New Windsor foundation sending care packages gets few donations this year

Saturday

Dec 1, 2012 at 2:00 AM

NEW WINDSOR — Usually by this time of year, Lucy Mercado is deluged with donations for her Support Our Heroes foundation, which sends care packages to our troops overseas.

BY MICHAEL RANDALL

NEW WINDSOR — Usually by this time of year, Lucy Mercado is deluged with donations for her Support Our Heroes foundation, which sends care packages to our troops overseas.

While she operates all year, it's between Thanksgiving and Christmas that the public mostly steps up to help.

"We haven't had any help this year," Mercado said.

There are several reasons, she figures. One is that people lately have been focused on sending help to the victims of Hurricane Sandy, which she understands.

But she thinks that between the U.S. withdrawal from Iraq and plans to do the same in Afghanistan in a couple years, many believe she has ceased operations, or that there's no longer a need for such help.

The opposite is true in both cases, she said.

"They're still struggling out there," Mercado said of the troops. "They still need a boost to their morale."

She figured it was time for a gentle reminder of those facts.

Mercado regularly sends packages to three platoons serving in Afghanistan, and she spends a lot out of her own pocket in addition to what she gets in donations from the public.

It began when she learned her son Luis Mercado Jr., who was on his second tour of duty with the Marines in Iraq in 2004, was sharing the contents of the packages she sent him with others who weren't so lucky to have someone back home doing the same for them.

She started sending more not only to Luis' platoon but also packages to other platoons, and pledged that if Luis came home safely (he did), she'd continue the practice until all our troops were home. Little did she know what she was getting into.